The lines at the Portland food carts were just a little bit longer on the evening of Saturday, March 22. The SeaPort Airlines team called it their “last supper.” It was the last meal the team enjoyed just a few hours before the Portland, Oregon-based regional airline completed a successful migration of their existing passenger service system to the Amadeus Altéa portfolio of airline IT solutions.

That night the carrier migrated all of its IT systems – inventory, reservations, ticketing, departure control and e-commerce – all in just a matter of hours. This is what we at Amadeus fondly refer to as a “Big Bang” cutover. And what a day it was for everyone.

On Big Bang Saturday, the Amadeus and SeaPort teams were connected across sites in all parts of the world. From Sydney to Juneau, Nice to Dallas, and Chicago back to Portland, Amadeus supported SeaPort every step of the way during the cutover. Rob McKinney, president of SeaPort Airlines, hosted the cutover command center right in his office and communicated frequently with members of the team throughout the migration. At completion, Rob also had the distinction of being the first SeaPort customer to book a reservation, powered by the technology of their new Amadeus system.

With the cutover commencing around 9:30 p.m. and with only a few bumps in the road, by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, SeaPort flights were operating near full schedule. Passengers and seamless operations are priorities for every airline. And in the airline IT migration business, a successful cutover is one that passengers shouldn’t even realize is happening. In Alaska, in line with their normal operating schedule, SeaPort moved a local priest from one town to another, so that he could conduct his Sunday service on time. So all systems were go.

“For us, this was a monumental task,” said Tim Sieber, executive vice president of SeaPort Airlines. “We completed the cutover in a short timeline with a limited amount of people, and it was entirely successful. Amadeus continues to provide a lot of support and refinement throughout the entire process, and we’re extremely lucky to have them as ongoing partners.”

The new technology offers the regional carrier the abilities of a national or international carrier, which SeaPort plans to leverage with interline partnerships.

“Our colleagues at SeaPort have let us know that this is a true game-changer for their business,” said Ray Pawley, ‎director, airline IT & distribution, Amadeus Americas. “They have a true understanding of what the Altéa system can do for their airline and how it will ultimately service their customers. We couldn’t be more thrilled to provide that technology to them.”

For more details on SeaPort’s cutover, you can read the full press release here.

Additionally, SeaPort continues to embrace next gen technology and the ongoing loop of innovation. As part of their migration to the Altéa system, the carrier also implemented big data analysis capabilities, becoming the first launch customer for the Amadeus Travel Intelligence Engine.

So congratulations to the SeaPort and the Amadeus team on a great Big Bang and a bright future of fantastic flying.